


The Bullet That Counts

by Ruis



Category: Original Work
Genre: Dead Enemies Team Up To Pull A Jailbreak From The Afterlife, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-07 04:27:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20303443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruis/pseuds/Ruis
Summary: “You again”, she stated unsmilingly. Even now she was full of energy, never standing still for more than a second, and where she stepped rose wisps of ghostly white smoke that smelled faintly of incense. “It seems we have some unfinished business.”





	The Bullet That Counts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DesertScribe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertScribe/gifts).

When she walked up to Adam, she looked almost as he remembered, wearing a generic washed out shadow of a uniform, a shadowy badge and the ghost of a gun at her hip. Of course, she was pale and washed out now as well, all the colors gone. The last time he had seen her, she had been a fury in blue and gold, her hair shining like honey in the sun. She had been beautiful with her face drawn in intense concentration – was beautiful still, he thought. And her gun… He winced. Her gun had been the last thing he had seen in his life. 

Now, as she walked over the faintly glowing fields of Elysium – Adam could not think of a better name for wherever it was they had ended up – she looked… Thoughtful. “You again”, she stated unsmilingly. Even now she was full of energy, never standing still for more than a second, and where she stepped rose wisps of ghostly white smoke that smelled faintly of incense. “It seems we have some unfinished business.”

“Looks like it, cop lady”, Adam answered quietly, taking a sip from a ghostly can of beer that had appeared next to him a short while ago. If he understood the rules of this place correctly, that meant someone had poured it in his honor. Apparently, offerings to the dead were a real thing. He sighed inwardly, looking at the brand – he could guess who of his friends was responsible for this. Still, it did not matter much when everything tasted more or less of dust. The dust of graves, he thought, shivering.

“Don’t call me that”, she said. “I’m Ramona – and just for the record, I didn’t actually mean to shoot you. It was a heat of the moment thing.” She picked up a handful of translucent, shimmering gravel, studied it for a moment and let it fall again, sighing when the pebbles struck the ground almost soundlessly.

Adam was not at all sure this mattered anymore. He had walked the endless pale landscape looking for a way out, for how long he could not tell, and this was the closest he had been able to come to the world of the living. The worlds were separated by… He guessed the barrier was commonly called the Veil although it did not appear as anything like a veil to him. Behind that was everything he’d had to leave behind. It was there, he could feel it, could almost reach it – could even talk across the barrier, and he would never have thought he’d be grateful for his sister’s Ouija board – and yet he was trapped. He supposed he should feel angry. 

Meanwhile, Ramona was not finished examining her surroundings. She had discovered the Veil as well, poking it with a finger. „Why do I still have my gun, anyway?“ Ramona asked. “It’s definitely not just any gun, it’s mine, serial number and all. And I don’t think it actually, you know, died with me or anything. It should still have been in forensics.” For the first time, she looked, really looked closely, at Adam. “I’m sorry, that was probably insensitive of me.”

Adam actually had to suppress a laugh at that. “With you gone, it probably lost its soul. Almost the same as dying if you ask me.” He remembered how Ramona had moved with the gun in her hand, woman and weapon as a beautiful, deadly unit. How very fitting they would be united in death as well. That was not something he would speak out loud, though. That might just make her shoot him again, and he did not want to find out what effects ghostly bullets would have on his ghostly body… Instead, he took another sip of his tasteless beer.

“So… How do we get out of here? Do you already have a plan? I’m sure you do.” Almost as an afterthought, Ramona drew her gun and fired a few ghostly bullets in rapid succession at the barrier separating the living from the dead, frowned when they did not seem to have any impact. “What’s with this curtain thing, anyway?” 

Adam could not help but admire her form. He might be stuck in the afterlife but that was a sight he could get used to. One thing surprised him, though. “Is that what it looks like to you?”, he asked incredulously. “A curtain?”

She inspected the barrier more closely at that. “What does it look like for you, then?” She tried a rapid ripping motion that, as far as Adam could tell, had no effect whatsoever. “I’m guessing it’s not a coincidence we meet again, and right here. I’m also guessing you have no intention to stay in this place, whatever it is.” She paused for a moment, watching a group of ghosts walk past them silently and seemingly without noticing them or each other. “And where did you get that beer?”

When Adam answered, it was haltingly. How could he explain – and to a cop, of all people! – what the sight of prison bars meant to him? They looked no less menacing, no less final than when he had been alive. When he had died trying to escape bars just like these… He crushed the empty can in this hand, noticing how even the usually so satisfying sound seemed muted in this place. Fortunately, and to Adam’s surprise, she seemed to understand at least some of it and did not try to interrupt him. Even more surprisingly, at some point when it seemed he could not speak on, she took his hand and squeezed gently. 

“So, your friends send you offerings? Any chance of a cake with a file in it?” Leave it to the cop to come up with that kind of cliché… But then, Adam thought, even if she’d been joking, she might have a point. This place was as cliché as it got, anyway. It might just work… This time, after all, he had some backup for when it really counted, a bullet for whoever might try to keep them from leaving. 

And maybe even more importantly – he glanced at their still entwined hands – if he wasn’t mistaken, there was an even better reason to go back. He smiled at Ramona tentatively. “Just shoot any afterlife cops, and we’ll be fine.”


End file.
